Truth told, analyzing the dojo for clues into Mr. Noda’s political soul perhaps holds as much merit as investigating his sign of the Zodiac or blood type. Nonetheless, at least a few of those with interest piqued have felt compelled to get to know the old school fish.

Like Mr. Noda, the fish, “dojo” in Japanese, was largely a mysterious creature until this week. The creature and its cuisine have fallen off traditional Japanese menus since a heyday in the Edo period, and nowadays it’s associated with the more traditional, grittier east side of Tokyo. Like jellied eels in the East End of London, the few specialist restaurants that are left seem to cater mostly to tourists and members of the older generation looking for a nostalgic taste of their youth.

“I was intrigued because it (the dojo) has been talked about so much this week,” said 58-year-old Azuko Hikawa, who was in the capital visiting her daughter. Ms. Hikawa simply told a cab driver to take her and her daughter to a dojo restaurant for lunch on Wednesday.

The cab driver took the Hikawas to Komakata Dozeu, a large, 200-year-old restaurant in the historic Asakusa neighborhood in Tokyo and one of the few dojo-specialty eateries open in the capital. The restaurant’s design is an ode to traditional Japan where people sit on the floor in rows on either side of shared tables, long slabs of wood laying flat on the straw mats.

The menu offering displays near absolute loyalty to the dojo: fried dojo, fried dojo bones and grilled dojo. But the house specialty is a kind of dojo hot pot, known as “nabe” in Japanese. The fish, short and thick like an index finger, are organized in neat rows on an thin iron plate, which is brought out sizzling in a shallow sauce over a charcoal grill. The broth was a salty-sweet mix made out of soy sauce, mirin and katsuoboshi (dried fish). That, and the mountain of green scallions heaped generously onto the tender dojo, helped temper the strong, fishy taste.

But Ms. Hikawa seemed to be a rarity. The restaurant manager said business, which was fairly brisk, has not changed this week.

“There aren’t too many restaurants serving loach in Japan any more, so I wanted to try it,” said Yoshi Ishikawa, who was visiting Tokyo from Niigata, about 150 miles to the north.

Although a fan of the delicacy, Mr. Ishikawa seemed perplexed as to why the new prime minister would want to compare himself to the humble loach: “I wonder what he meant?” said Mr. Ishikawa. “To be honest, I have no idea.”

Comments (2 of 2)

I don't really appreciate the fact Mr Noda compared himself with an ugly fish. It's a very low way to attract sympathy in Japan, a sort of flattery by using exegerated false modesty. I think instead of "super-modest" prime minister, Japan mostly needs a real man of state, someone who has new ideas, who is able to attract to him (that means searches, finds, and rewards) talentuous people. Someone who really knows his job, but I'm not sure Mr Noda is that man. I hope I'm wrong....

4:10 pm September 1, 2011

Smeg wrote:

Well, his recent comments that there are no war criminals enshrined at Yasukuni certainly identify him as a bottom-feeder.

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